"The Power of our Beliefs"

When I was in first grade the teacher pulled me aside during one of our reading groups and started to have me tested. It wasn't until I had graduated from college and was towards the end of my second degree that one of my professors recognized that I was dyslexic. The irony was that I was getting a teaching degree in reading and speech. When I look back I see that even though I was pulled out of class I didn't believe that I had a reading problem. You see, I loved to read and I read many novels for sheer pleasure. In class I was the one who always answered the questions and scored high in comprehension. I finished my work early so I could catch up on my latest book. I wrote short stories and poetry even with the spelling problems.

 Looking back I laugh now as I never accepted that I had this handicap until that one day that it was pointed out by my professor as she showed me how it all worked. Since I was getting a teaching certificate in reading, learning about dyslexia was part of it. I had the privilege of being tested with flying colors of not one but many different types of dyslexia. This was at the time when the educational system was doing massive research on it and was starting to really implement programs in public schools. Heartbroken I went home to my husband thinking that something was wrong with me. I started to see flashbacks of times in class that made me work even harder to keep up with everyone else.

 It wasn't until I started to study energy patterns later on in life that I found myself one day at the book store staring at the dreaded word search books. I remembered how word searches which were given to us as a fun activity in class and how they used to befuddled me. In that moment it dawned on me that I should be really good at them as all they really were, were patterns going in many different directions. I also had discovered later in life that I had a knack for patterns. I bought a word search book that would fit into my purse and decide that day it was time to try to crack the code.

I must say that the first few attempts brought back memories of frustration making me feel on the edge of failure. It wasn't until I was about to give up that I realized that I was trying to do the word search the way I was taught and the way most people look for words. One day I sat down and this time I took a step back where I could see the whole page. I then randomly picked out a word from the selection choosing only a few letters in the word that looked like a pattern. Looking down onto the whole puzzle that single combination of letters popped out of the page. Excited to see it I then looked for the rest of the word and circled it. I did the same for the next word and the next. It was fun as letter combinations jumped out at me wanting to be found. I had done it!

"What did I learn form this?," echoed in my mind as I heard my husband's words when I have been frustrated or discovered something. What I learned was that, "Sometimes the things in our life that we believe hold us back only have power if we believe it." 

Side Note: I still love reading and just finished editing my first book.
Photographs by Ana Noyce

"The Power of Love"

I had the honor of experiencing something very special as I was visiting someone. The person I was seeing was a cousin who is very handicapped and most everything in her life has to be done by someone else. She is completely dependent on another human being for her everyday life activities. Each time I see her she is smiling and happy unless she is sick.

Today was no different and as I was spending my time with her I looked around at the others in the room who were also in one way or another with the same existence. It was then that I became aware of the love that was being broadcast silently though out the room. As I let myself open to feel, I had the experience in my own heart of a feeling that was a pure joy.

Driving home I had to think about what had happened to me and what caused this amazing love in my heart. I thought about people who have children who are handicapped and often we think, "Oh, I am so sorry that you have a child like that and they have to endure that." But we have it wrong because these beautiful people have something much bigger to share with us than the average everyday problems.

As I remembered standing there with my heart open I could feel and see the love that moved around the room. Each of the ladies who were there had a love that surrounded them in what they were doing as they facilitate the group. My cousin and her friends were enjoying each others company and the love for each other was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

If you are not around that much love coming out of that many people then it can be a little like being tipsy. As I stumbled back to my car, I realized that something very special had just happened and I was very blessed by being a part of it.

Photographs by Steve Noyce

"Quotes from the Heart"

A few quotes from the heart celebrating Valentine's day... "To Love, and to be Loved, knowing we are created out of Unconditional love, is to know we exist." - Ana Noyce

1. "The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart."  — Helen Keller
    
   
2. "I would rather spend one lifetime with you, than face all the ages of this world alone." — Lord of The Rings
   
   
3. "The greatest thing you'll ever learn Is to love and be loved in return." — "Unforgettable with Love" by Natalie Cole
   
   
4. "Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence." - Erich Fromm
   
   
5. "Let your love be like the misty rains, coming softly, but flooding the river."- Malagasy Proverb
   
   
6. "Love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end." -Author Unknown
   
   
7. “You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” -Dr. Seuss

             Happy Valentine's Day!

Photo by my sister Angelique

"A Lesson on Abundance"

Throughout my life I have heard many say that they wanted abundance in their lives. From my own perspective I have also felt that it would be wonderful to have abundance in my own life. But what exactly is it that we are really calling into our lives? I say this because it was a spiritual teacher who brought this to my attention asking me that same question many years ago. Of course when I thought about it back then I wasn't sure what I really wanted only that the word abundance sounded good and all my friends were asking for it. If my friends were wanting it in their lives it must be something that I needed in my life?

Then my teacher said, "Ana, what is in your heart? Remember it is the energy frequency that is in your heart which sends out huge signals to the Universe matching up those experiences that vibrate on the same frequency into your life. For example if you are in a high frequency and love is resonating in your heart and you ask for abundance, you will have the opportunities to have those experiences where love is called into your life. Know that love can be experienced in many forms and may not be what you had in mind. What you are given are different ways to recognize love depending on what the soul is needing to learn about it. Another example is if you had a loss, your heart is already experiencing loss so when you ask for abundance you receive experiences where you continue to experience losses in your life. When asking for attracting abundance is not something to take lightly or even do without knowing what it is you want." 

Side note: The heart is also known as the "Seat of the Soul".

After talking to the teacher I started to recognize the symmetry between my personal energy, thoughts and what influenced my own heart. I also began to notice that I was sending out unconscious signals that were not always in alignment with my heart and what I thought I wanted in my life. This proved to be quite interesting as I began to to really question what it was, that I was actually sending out when I was asking for abundance. Then it all started to make a lot more sense as I realized that the connection that was being missed was the balance between the mind, body, and soul. I am not going to say that it was and is easy, as it is letting go of a lifetime of old beliefs but it does work.

Being human I find that I am not always conscious of balancing the mind, body and soul as I do like everyone else on the planet who gets distracted with the physical world. What I am working on is being a lot more conscious of the connection. However, I find that it is true that the heart has a the upper hand in what we are attracting into our lives and sometimes it really doesn't match up to what we think we need even when asking for abundance. 

1st Photograph by my sister Angelique
2nd Photograph by Ana